Reset W7 install

[Lloyd Parsons]

I made a dual boot system with Linux and W7 because I wanted to try out
Linux.

Now I'd like to go back to just W7.

Here's the rub. I only have the Restore DVDs made from Gateway for this
netbook. It doesn't do any re-partitioning. So how do I go from here?
I sure haven't figured it out.

And Gateway's docs indicate that a 'new' drive might not get everything
right with the restore DVDs. But they are vague, or just covering their
ass.

 

[Joel]

I made a dual boot system with Linux and W7 because I wanted to try out
Linux.

Now I'd like to go back to just W7.

Here's the rub. I only have the Restore DVDs made from Gateway for this
netbook. It doesn't do any re-partitioning. So how do I go from here?
I sure haven't figured it out.

And Gateway's docs indicate that a 'new' drive might not get everything
right with the restore DVDs. But they are vague, or just covering their
ass.

It sounds like it might be more trouble than it's worth to work around
the limitations of the restore disks. Which edition
(e.g. Home Premium 64-bit, etc.) did it come with? You should be able
to reinstall clean using the appropriate ISO image of the DVD-ROM of
that edition, and your COA Product Key. I'd be happy to help you
obtain the ISO.

 

[JazMac]

I made a dual boot system with Linux and W7 because I wanted to try out
Linux.

Now I'd like to go back to just W7.

Here's the rub. I only have the Restore DVDs made from Gateway for this
netbook. It doesn't do any re-partitioning. So how do I go from here?
I sure haven't figured it out.

And Gateway's docs indicate that a 'new' drive might not get everything
right with the restore DVDs. But they are vague, or just covering their
ass.

If you did a WUBI installation, (install linux from inside windows) all you need to do to get rid of Linux is is go into Add Remove programs and get rid of it. If you used a partitioning utility, run the same utility and remove the partition. I use EASEUS Partition Master to manage partitions. It's pretty easy to use. This would be the best method to get rid of Linux partition.

-JazMac

 

[Lloyd Parsons]

It sounds like it might be more trouble than it's worth to work around
the limitations of the restore disks. Which edition
(e.g. Home Premium 64-bit, etc.) did it come with? You should be able
to reinstall clean using the appropriate ISO image of the DVD-ROM of
that edition, and your COA Product Key. I'd be happy to help you
obtain the ISO.

It is W7 starter edition, which is a 32-bit Windows lite kind of thing.

Appreciate the offer, but at worst I'll just buy a Windows Home upgrade
somewhere and do it from scratch.

From Gateway's site, it appears that the restores will work with a new
drive. So I figure if I just install Linux on the whole damn thing, the
restore will see that as a non-partitioned (or wrong partitioned) drive
and set it right.

If it doesn't, Linux has all the things I need for the netbook and I can
'suffer' (<G>) with it.

 

[Joel]

It is W7 starter edition, which is a 32-bit Windows lite kind of thing.

Appreciate the offer, but at worst I'll just buy a Windows Home upgrade
somewhere and do it from scratch.

From Gateway's site, it appears that the restores will work with a new
drive. So I figure if I just install Linux on the whole damn thing, the
restore will see that as a non-partitioned (or wrong partitioned) drive
and set it right.

If it doesn't, Linux has all the things I need for the netbook and I can
'suffer' (<G>) with it.

Deleting all the partitions first might work, yes, but in case, I'll
include the info:


https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx?pv=36:350

File Name: en_windows_7_starter_x86_dvd_x15-68956.iso
Date Published (UTC): 8/6/2009 9:59:56 AM Last Updated (UTC):
8/24/2009 8:59:33 AM
SHA1: 5DC1457BC4B3D94097F499B15DFDB3C21DADCDF5 ISO/CRC: 43DE3418

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There seem to be a few torrents with that file (and it very well might
be hosted on a foreign Web or FTP server, or be available in some
binary newsgroup). Obviously, checking the SHA1
(and glancing at the ISO from WinRAR or another program, or just
looking at the root of the burned DVD-ROM, to see if it looks
right - that combined with the SHA1 verification is virtually as
secure as downloading from MSDN/Technet itself)
is important, and you should make sure you can get the Product Key
from the certificate on your computer, before going to the trouble of
downloading.

 

[Lloyd Parsons]

Deleting all the partitions first might work, yes, but in case, I'll
include the info:


https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx?pv=36:35
0

File Name: en_windows_7_starter_x86_dvd_x15-68956.iso
Date Published (UTC): 8/6/2009 9:59:56 AM Last Updated (UTC):
8/24/2009 8:59:33 AM
SHA1: 5DC1457BC4B3D94097F499B15DFDB3C21DADCDF5 ISO/CRC: 43DE3418

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-

There seem to be a few torrents with that file (and it very well might
be hosted on a foreign Web or FTP server, or be available in some
binary newsgroup). Obviously, checking the SHA1
(and glancing at the ISO from WinRAR or another program, or just
looking at the root of the burned DVD-ROM, to see if it looks
right - that combined with the SHA1 verification is virtually as
secure as downloading from MSDN/Technet itself)
is important, and you should make sure you can get the Product Key
from the certificate on your computer, before going to the trouble of
downloading.

Thanks, Joel. I can't check right now as I'm restoring (successfully I
hope) to the drive.

I kept thinking that the recovery has to work with a new hd because a
crashed HD isn't an 'if' it is always a 'when'. I just couldn't find a
partition editor. And then the light bulb finally went off!!

I had this handy Ubuntu Netbook Remix DVD that I could run Linux from.
Ran gparted and killed the partition table on the HD. Rebooted this
little baby from the restore DVD and it has copied all the files already
and is in the process of extracting and setting things up. Or at least
that's what the progress is telling me!

I'll know in a bit how it all went.

 

[Lloyd Parsons]

Thanks, Joel. I can't check right now as I'm restoring (successfully I
hope) to the drive.

I kept thinking that the recovery has to work with a new hd because a
crashed HD isn't an 'if' it is always a 'when'. I just couldn't find a
partition editor. And then the light bulb finally went off!!

I had this handy Ubuntu Netbook Remix DVD that I could run Linux from.
Ran gparted and killed the partition table on the HD. Rebooted this
little baby from the restore DVD and it has copied all the files already
and is in the process of extracting and setting things up. Or at least
that's what the progress is telling me!

I'll know in a bit how it all went.

Blast!! It didn't go well. Ubuntu puts grub (a boot manager) some damn
where on the HD and I can't get it off. I think it is a system reserved
area or boot sector. Unfortunately you can't write a boot sector from a
msdos disk's fdisk, cause there's no damn MSDOS around anymore.

So, I started the Ubuntu install again. I'll set it for a 50G
partition, which will leave plenty for W7 and good enough to play around
in Ubuntu. The grub will allow the booting of either one or the other.
Not ideal, but OK.

 

[Just D]

Reboot from the Win instalation CD/DVD, restore the MBR, then reboot, get
Windows with no Linux boot loader, finally delete all Linux partitions and
reformat them for Windows.

 

[Lloyd Parsons]

Reboot from the Win instalation CD/DVD, restore the MBR, then reboot, get
Windows with no Linux boot loader, finally delete all Linux partitions and
reformat them for Windows.

No way to do that from the DVDs I have now.

I knew that is what I wanted, just can't figure out how to get there.

 

[Joel]

Blast!! It didn't go well. Ubuntu puts grub (a boot manager) some damn
where on the HD and I can't get it off. I think it is a system reserved
area or boot sector. Unfortunately you can't write a boot sector from a
msdos disk's fdisk, cause there's no damn MSDOS around anymore.

I was afraid of that. Restore disks are such a pain.

So, I started the Ubuntu install again. I'll set it for a 50G
partition, which will leave plenty for W7 and good enough to play around
in Ubuntu. The grub will allow the booting of either one or the other.
Not ideal, but OK.

You could even just use GRUB to load 7 (without Linux installed), I
think, although as you say it's not ideal. Might as well have Linux
on there, if you're gonna have that loader, I suppose.

 

[Lloyd Parsons]

I was afraid of that. Restore disks are such a pain.




You could even just use GRUB to load 7 (without Linux installed), I
think, although as you say it's not ideal. Might as well have Linux
on there, if you're gonna have that loader, I suppose.

I'm a bit hardheaded, so I kept digging. Here's how to do an mbr reset
without windows at all :

http://www.thecoderanger.com/rewrite-a-windows-hard-disk-mbr-with-an-ubun
tu-9-04-live-cd/

 

[Joel]

I'm a bit hardheaded, so I kept digging. Here's how to do an mbr reset
without windows at all :

http://www.thecoderanger.com/rewrite-a-windows-hard-disk-mbr-with-an-ubun
tu-9-04-live-cd/

Nice!

 

[Mike S.]

No way to do that from the DVDs I have now.

I knew that is what I wanted, just can't figure out how to get there.

Doesn't W7 have a tool to create a recovery CD? It's in the START menu
somewhere. You should be able to burn that disc, boot from it, and restore
the MBR.

 

[Seth]

It is W7 starter edition, which is a 32-bit Windows lite kind of thing.

Appreciate the offer, but at worst I'll just buy a Windows Home upgrade
somewhere and do it from scratch.

From Gateway's site, it appears that the restores will work with a new
drive. So I figure if I just install Linux on the whole damn thing, the
restore will see that as a non-partitioned (or wrong partitioned) drive
and set it right.

If it doesn't, Linux has all the things I need for the netbook and I can
'suffer' (<G>) with it.

You should be able to use BCDEDIT to reset the boot record to the W7 drive
which would then make it safe to remove the Linux partition and then within
Win7 expand the W7 partition to take over the rest of the drive.

 

[Lloyd Parsons]

Doesn't W7 have a tool to create a recovery CD? It's in the START menu
somewhere. You should be able to burn that disc, boot from it, and restore
the MBR.

I did some reading on that. Yes there is a way, but the OEM can control
how the partition is done. In this case, the OEM (Gateway) chose not to
allow that. From a restore DVD you can reload it all replacing
everything, or reload without losing any data you have. No other
choices.

Seems dumb.

 

[Lloyd Parsons]

You should be able to use BCDEDIT to reset the boot record to the W7 drive
which would then make it safe to remove the Linux partition and then within
Win7 expand the W7 partition to take over the rest of the drive.

I was able to all but the last. I tried the disk management program and
it would not allow 'expanding' the boot drive. I suppose I could boot
the Linux DVD and do it with gparted though.

BCDEDIT requires some sort of boot to a dvd or some such, doesn't it? I
had no way of doing that.

 

[Joel]

I was able to all but the last. I tried the disk management program and
it would not allow 'expanding' the boot drive.

Hmm, I didn't realize that 7's partition resizer didn't do that (I've
never actually used it, since I didn't realize it existed till after
the last time I did such a thing). There is a free program I've used
under 7 to do it, though (it reboots into a special operating mode
when working with the boot drive):

http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

 

[Lloyd Parsons]

Hmm, I didn't realize that 7's partition resizer didn't do that (I've
never actually used it, since I didn't realize it existed till after
the last time I did such a thing). There is a free program I've used
under 7 to do it, though (it reboots into a special operating mode
when working with the boot drive):

http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

Well fiddling around with this netbook and Linux has taught me a lot I
didn't know before. All kinds of ways to skin a cat, huh?

 

[Joel]

Well fiddling around with this netbook and Linux has taught me a lot I
didn't know before. All kinds of ways to skin a cat, huh?

Yup, I did some similar stuff with my first 7 install, where I had
experimented with Linux on the same drive. I had a good enough reason
to do a clean reinstall of 7 (more than I realized until after I did
it, in fact), and just handled it that way, but this thread has
reminded me of some of the stuff I had already forgotten (e.g. I was
wrong about running GRUB without having Linux installed, and another
poster's comment reminded me of that).

Partition Wizard's bootable CD would also likely help with this:

http://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html

 

[Roy Smith]

I'm a bit hardheaded, so I kept digging. Here's how to do an mbr reset
without windows at all :

http://www.thecoderanger.com/rewrite-a-windows-hard-disk-mbr-with-an-ubun
tu-9-04-live-cd/

There's just one problem, starting with Vista Windows doesn't use the
MBR to boot anymore. Instead it uses BCDedit to boot from. The easy
fix is to download the Windows 7 System Repair disk from
http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/. Once
burned to a CD, this bootable disk will find your Windows 7 install and
fix any boot problems it finds. This is the same CD that's created when
you go to Control Panel - System and Security - Backup and Restore and
clicking on the line "Create a system repair disc" on the left pane.

--

Roy Smith
Windows 7 Home Premium

Timestamp: Saturday, February 06, 2010 10:04:53 AM